Economy
The township (and inlaid Shamokin Dam) is home to most of Snyder County's commercial activity and serves as the location for nearly all of the county's national-chain retail outlets, hotels, and restaurants. The Susquehanna Valley Mall is in Monroe Township. The most recent addition is Monroe Marketplace, a collection of department stores and restaurants which was developed on farmland and the site of a former church camp along U.S. Routes 11 & 15. It was fully completed in 2009. Nearly every major "Big Box" retail format (e.g. home improvement, general merchandise, grocery, department store, and consumer electronics) has a presence in the township.
U.S. Routes 11 & 15 combine at the township's north end and continue southward through the township in a combined fashion. The highway is a major travel artery through the region. Day time flow is constant (truck and vehicle) with very heavy loads and serious backups on Fridays and holiday weekends. A thruway project has been in the works to allow traffic to bypass the congested commercial area, with only a portion (that which bypasses Selinsgrove) having ever been completed. The remaining portion which would lie in Monroe Township exists only as a concept. Residents along the proposed route have expressed concerns about the negative impact on their quality of life that the thruway will mean. Others are concerned that the bypass will mean a loss of business that the traffic on highway brings to restaurants and hotels along the current route. The primary inhibition to construction is a lack of funding for the estimated $300 million project.
The Penn Central Railroad passes through the township between Old Trail Road and the Susquehanna River, used for the delivery of coal to Sunbury Generation, a 420 MW coal-fired power plant in Shamokin Dam.
Read more about this topic: Monroe Township, Snyder County, Pennsylvania
Famous quotes containing the word economy:
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—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)
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—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
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—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)